This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every persons position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the FAQ and RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate and remove the ads - it's free!

Re: Ferguson Demands High Fees To Turn Over City Files

Originally Posted by Lutherf

How can you be sure that $135/hr is unreasonable? Ferguson is under the microscope of the DoJ and any mistake they make is likely to be blown WAY out of proportion so legal review of any release is imperative. On top of that any personal information released about personnel could result in that person being harassed or even harmed so, under the circumstances, the "due diligence" stakes increase exponentially from what they normally are. Frankly, $135/hr is dirt cheap for professional legal review services.

Because even at time and a half, that works out to $90/hr. Even their lawyers don't make that much and they're charging that for the time the clerks spend on the requests

Originally Posted by Mycroft

I don't have any issue with any investigation.

Originally Posted by jaeger19

the vast majority of folks that need healthcare are on Medicare.. both rich and poor..

Re: Ferguson Demands High Fees To Turn Over City Files

Originally Posted by sangha

2) There is no such thing as an "unreasonable volume of requests". Individual requests are either reasonable or not, and Ferguson is not claiming the requests are unreasonable (in which case they could simply deny the request)

Nonsense. The second definition of "unreasonable" when googled says: "beyond the limits of acceptability or fairness." Is it or acceptable or fair to expect a normal clerk's office to complete let's estimate, conservatively, 10 times the normal amount of work in a period of time? You forget that these offices are staffed to meet only a normal level of work volume. Perhaps they are protecting their customers from an unreasonable amount of time it would take to handle their request if they were even more inundated with that request. An individual request may be reasonable, but when combined with thousands of others just like it become unreasonable for the office personnel in their volume.

Besides, the AP hasn't even paid the bill yet. If many other organizations aren't paying their bills the office may be trying to recuperate losses on other requests. e.g., if 5-6 other requests failed to pay the necessary fees it would be reasonable to raise prices to ensure that you can pay the people doing the work. Before you say that's unreasonable, it's a daily occurance in healthcare.

Re: Ferguson Demands High Fees To Turn Over City Files

Originally Posted by CycloneWanderer

Nonsense. The second definition of "unreasonable" when googled says: "beyond the limits of acceptability or fairness." Is it or acceptable or fair to expect a normal clerk's office to complete let's estimate, conservatively, 10 times the normal amount of work in a period of time? You forget that these offices are staffed to meet only a normal level of work volume. Perhaps they are protecting their customers from an unreasonable amount of time it would take to handle their request if they were even more inundated with that request. An individual request may be reasonable, but when combined with thousands of others just like it become unreasonable for the office personnel in their volume.

Wrong. FOIA requests are not required to be filled immediately. In fact, there is no time limit.

Besides, the AP hasn't even paid the bill yet. If many other organizations aren't paying their bills the office may be trying to recuperate losses on other requests. e.g., if 5-6 other requests failed to pay the necessary fees it would be reasonable to raise prices to ensure that you can pay the people doing the work. Before you say that's unreasonable, it's a daily occurance in healthcare.

Now you're just making up facts.

Originally Posted by Mycroft

I don't have any issue with any investigation.

Originally Posted by jaeger19

the vast majority of folks that need healthcare are on Medicare.. both rich and poor..

Re: Ferguson Demands High Fees To Turn Over City Files

Wrong. FOIA requests are not required to be filled immediately. In fact, there is no time limit.

Now you're just making up facts.

You don't even acknowledge the meat of my arguments, much less respond to them.

The nature of your second criticism is so imprecise that responding to it would be quite literally unreasonable (i.e., not guided by or based on good sense). Considering that I no longer believe your goal is to understand another point of view besides your own, I am retiring from the conversation. Have a good afternoon.

Re: Ferguson Demands High Fees To Turn Over City Files

You don't even acknowledge the meat of my arguments, much less respond to them.

Nonsense. You claimed the volume was unreasonable because it would take longer for them to process a large # of requests on a timely basis. Thee fact is that there is no time limit.

The nature of your second criticism is so imprecise that responding to it would be quite literally unreasonable (i.e., not guided by or based on good sense). Considering that I no longer believe your goal is to understand another point of view besides your own, I am retiring from the conversation. Have a good afternoon.

Imprecise? You claim that there may be some other, unnamed, orgs that aren't paying their bill and that maybe that's the cause of the high price and then you think *I* am being imprecise?

Since you're such a fan of precision, why don't you tell us how much Ferguson has incurred in unpaid bills for this service?

Originally Posted by Mycroft

I don't have any issue with any investigation.

Originally Posted by jaeger19

the vast majority of folks that need healthcare are on Medicare.. both rich and poor..

Re: Ferguson Demands High Fees To Turn Over City Files

Originally Posted by sangha

Because even at time and a half, that works out to $90/hr. Even their lawyers don't make that much and they're charging that for the time the clerks spend on the requests

Like I said, the clerks probably aren't the ones handling these requests. If I was making the decisions in Ferguson regarding this issue it wouldn't even be my staff filling the requests. I'd have a third party doing it just for an extra level of separation.